The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD announced for fall, new 3D Zelda in early development

As far as concrete announcements go, today's Wii U Nintendo Direct was a bit light, but here's one that is pretty great. Nintendo is updating The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker in HD and will be releasing it in the fall later this year. Think of the announcement as a way to hold Zelda fans over until the currently-in-development new 3DZelda game is ready to be shown to the public.

While specific details about the "next" 3DZelda title were scant, EijiAonuma of Nintendo's software development department did highlight some design points they were considering for the title:

Mission: "Rethink the conventions of Zelda"

Complete dungeons in a certain order

Play by yourself

Eiji actually mentions that the team attempted this mission before with Skyward Sword, but was unable to put the necessary effort into changing the game's linear-path structure. Are we looking at a truly open-world Zelda game coming up in 2014?

As a result of Nintendo testing HD graphics for the new Zelda game on Wind Waker, apparently they found that it completely transformed the experience. Basically, once they'd updated a portion of Wind Waker, they couldn't stop. I'm sure it also helps that it will fill the missing Zelda slot in the Wii U's library until something new can be developed. Profit!

Whatever the reasons for its development, it's absolutely awesome that Wind Waker is getting the love it deserves and will be receiving an HD update. Look out for The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker's release this fall. It's by far my personal favorite 3DZelda title.

In the mean time, check out the announcement as it was made during the Nintendo Direct event today, or view the screenshots of HD Wind Waker we picked up from Nintendo.

I wasn't really expecting to hear about a Wind Waker HD game so this was pretty surprising and it is a good thing too. I've only completed the game once with plans to go back and play it again. I may wait for this to be released and leave my Gamecube copy in its wrapper.